Hermann Hesse “Beyond Pictures and Stories”
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Hermann Hesse “Beyond pictures and stories” introduction and coordination by Pier Carlo Della Ferrera essays by Alessandro Melazzini, Giuseppe Curonici and Regina Bucher “Beyond pictures and stories” The novel of the life of Hermann Hesse I was born in the early hours of the evening At fifteen years of age, when at school I had on a warm day in July, and it is the warmth got nowhere, I started to tutor myself on of that hour that I have unconsciously loved my own, conscientiously and with determi- and sought all my life. nation. To my great pleasure, as luck would I am the son of God-fearing parents whom I have it, in my father’s house there hap- loved dearly and would have loved even pened to be a huge library that had belonged more had they not taught me the fourth to my grandfather: an enormous room full commandment at a very early age.1 of old books, which among other things contained all the German literature and Hermann Hesse was born in Calw, a little philosophy of the eighteenth century. town in Wuerttemberg not far from Stuttgart, on the 2nd of July 1877, the second-born of After his first unsuccessful attempt at work- Johannes and Marie Gundert. His father, a ing as a sales assistant in a bookshop in Russian citizen of Baltic origin, who had pre- Esslingen, in June 1894 Hesse embarked viously served in a Pietist mission, worked for upon a difficult apprenticeship in a church a publishing house which produced religious tower clock factory. He managed to combine texts. His maternal grandfather, for many years manual effort with the tenacious intellectual a missionary in India, possessed a thorough commitment of a self-taught man and, thanks and vast knowledge of the Oriental world. From 1881 to 1886 Hesse lived in Basel, where his father had been appointed as edi- tor of the missions’ magazine. After return- ing to Calw with his family, in 1888 he began attending the Lateinschule in Goeppingen and in 1891 passed the diffi- cult State examination (Landexamen), which enabled him to enter the prestigious Evangelical seminary in Maulbronn the fol- lowing Autumn. Just hearing “You must” was enough to churn me up inside and make me obstinate. It goes without saying that this characteris- tic had an enormous damaging effect on my school years. All attempts at turning me into a useful man ended in failure, or rather dishonour and scan- Previous page: dal, and in my running away or my expulsion. Hans Sturzenegger mainly to his grandfather’s library, he acquired (1875-1943), Hesse reading, In March 1892, unable to bear the strict dis- a solid cultural education, which had its strong oil on canvas, 1912 cipline imposed by the way of life in the point in reading religious texts, oriental phi- seminary, the young Hermann ran away losophy and Goethe. Left: Letter with water- from boarding school. He was found half After moving to Tubingen in 1895, he found colour by Hermann frozen in the surrounding countryside and employment in the Heckenhauer library Hesse to his son Heiner, December immediately expelled from the institute. and attended bookkeeping courses. Although 1932 There then followed a period of restlessness, he continued to loathe school, his love for Right: of anxious search for identity and conflict Hesse with his family in with his family and religion. Several times 1 This and the subsequent autobiographical quotations by Hesse 1889, at 12 years of age; are taken from: H. HESSE, Kurzgefasser Lebenslauf (Autobiographical from left to right: the he tried to take up his studies again, but to no author, his father, avail. He even went so far as to threaten sui- outline), in “Neue Rundschau”, issue 8, 1925. Translated from the his sister Marulla, his cide and for this reason was admitted to a nur- Italian (Scritti autobiografici, Milano, Mondadori, 1961) by Barbara mother, his sister Adele and his brother Hans sing home for mental patients and epileptics. Ferrett Rogers. [III] Hermann Hesse culture grew steadily, and in the charm- spirit possible. In fact, after having quenched packed atmosphere of the little university that initial thirst, there was a need for me to town he furthered his knowledge of philoso- return from the sea of new things to the old. phy by reading Nietzsche, and above all his And so I did, by going from selling new books literary preparation by studying the authors to antiques. of German Romanticism including Novalis and Brentano. He also devoted himself to Hesse returned to live in Basel from 1899 studying languages and the history of art. At to 1903. He worked as a bookshop assistant, the end of 1898, he published his first work first for Reich and later for the antique deal- consisting of six hundred copies of a collec- er Wattenwyl. His activity as a freelance tion of poems bearing the significant title: political journalist and critic earned him a Romantic Songs (Romantische Lieder), with certain amount of fame, which enabled him the publisher Pierson in Dresden. The fol- to come into contact with the cultural lowing year he tried his hand at a similar sphere of the city, which still echoed loudly genre, short prose, in the anthology of tales with the philosophy of Jakob Burckhardt, One Hour after Midnight (Eine Stunde hinter who had died a few years earlier; the histor- Mitternacht), which was published in Leipzig ical pessimism of this Swiss intellectual was by the publisher Eugen Diederichs and found to have a decisive influence on his work. favour with the critics. He was thus on his In 1901 Hesse made his first journey to way to solving his first serious existential Italy, where he returned two years later. The crisis, thanks to the successful conclusion of visit to Genoa, Venice, Ravenna, and above Illustration from the his apprenticeship as a bookseller and the all Tuscany and Umbria aroused in him a book Calwer histo- promising start of a true literary activity. veneration for beauty imbued with moral risches Bilderbuch der Welt (Calw, 1883; participation, a source of intense emotions Stuttgart, 1987) which In the field of culture, living in the pure pre- which inspired him to write a short bio- was in the library of Hermann Gundert, sent, in the new and brand-new, is senseless graphical sketch of St. Francis of Assisi, Hesse’s grandfather, and unbearable. Only a continual relation- which was published in 1904. In 1901 he whom he spoke about ship with what has been, with history, with also made his debut as a novelist in The in the story The Child- hood of the Magician the old and the very old, makes the life of the Posthumous Papers and Poems of Hermann [IV] “Beyond pictures and stories” Lauscher (Hinterlassene Schriften und also to the growing difficulties he was com- Gedichte von Hermann Lauscher), enlarged ing up against in his marital relationship. upon and represented in 1907 with the title Disturbed by deep anxiety, fascinated by the Hermann Lauscher. After the death of his vastness of the world, Hesse felt a deep-seat- mother, to whom he dedicated the collection ed need for different experiences. So he of poems Poems (Gedichte), between 1903 decided to leave for the East, to become and 1904 he published Peter Camenzind in acquainted with the places where his moth- instalments in the “Neue Rundschau” and in er was born and which he had heard people book form with the influential Fischer pub- talk about so much: from September to lishing house in Berlin. Autobiographical, December 1911, together with his painter and centred on the subject of self-realisation friend Hans Sturzenegger, he made a long and self-education, which can only be attain- journey, stopping off in Malaysia, Ceylon, ed at the cost of breaking off and detachment Singapore and Sumatra. He recorded his from the community, the novel was Hesse’s impressions and remarks in the miscellany first great literary success, which enabled of notes, poems and stories entitled From him to leave his job as a bookseller. India. Notes of an Indian Journey (Aus In 1904 he married Maria Bernoulli, a Indien. Aufzeichnungen von einer indischen descendent of the famous family of scien- Reise), which he sent to press in 1913. tists of Basel, and a photographer and In the meantime, after having returned pianist of outstanding sensitivity. He settled from Asia, complying with his wife’s wishes, down with her in Gaienhofen, a quiet little he left Gaienhofen and moved with the fam- village on Lake Constance where their three ily to the outskirts of Berne, in the house children, Bruno (1905), Heiner (1909) and formerly lived in by another painter friend, Martin (1911) were born. Hesse decided to Albert Welti. But not even the beauty and devote himself to literature in propitious comforts of the Swiss capital were able to isolation. He first lived in a house belonging save his marriage with Maria, who had now to farmers, and then in one of his own, with grown cold and insensitive; the themes of a garden, an orchard and a breathtaking the autobiographical events during this view of the lake and mountains. period converged in 1914 into a new novel, This was the beginning of an intense period Rosshalde. of activity for Hesse: in 1906 he published Meanwhile, as confirmation of a presenti- Beneath the Wheel (Unterm Rad), placated ment that the writer had had many years reminiscences of his traumatic school experi- earlier, and to worsen the state of profound ences; between 1907 and 1912 the volumes of moral, personal and universal crisis, war stories This Side (Diesseits), Neighbours broke out.